Bregenzerwald bahn in Austria

[Daan]

Dear forummers.
Since I'm new to narrowgauge and the 009 society I would like to introduce myself in the first place. I'm Daan, 36 years on this planet and since being interested in modelrailways. I live in Holland, in the province called Sealand.
My choice for h0e originates from the whish to build a walkaround layout in my 9x9ft trainroom, but I didn't want the rolling stock to get too fiddly. After a few tryouts on a h0 layout in point to point railroading with switching puzzles I decided that my h0e layout also needed to be one with goods forwarding, preferrably like the big American layouts in basements and attics. Besides that I also wanted the railway to have the look and feel of a real railway, so I based it on an Austrian narrowgauge railway near the place I grew up, the Bregenzerwald Bahn.
In my perfect little world this terrific line hasn't ceased operation and is still "alive and kicking", with a healthy amount of freight to transport and a lot of enthousiastic travellers. It's spring, about the end of May, from the 50's onwards.



The layout starts at the city Bregenz, situated at the Bodenlake near Switserland and Germany. From there on the line comes across the stations of Vorkloster, Kennelbach, Doren-Sulzberg, Lingenau-Hittisau, Egg, Andelsbuch, Schwarzenberg and the end of the line: Bezau. For the simple fact that my room is limited in space, I decided to put Bregenz and Vorkloster together in the Fiddleyard, being only a destination on the Waybills I use for car forwarding. The first station which is modelled is Kennelbach.



From this station onwards the line winds it's way into the river valley of the Bregenzerach, where a small halt named "Fluh" is situated. It does however not infect you with a disease, as the name suggests..



Behind the small shed, the train comes along a coaling station which had been in use before WW2, but in my perfect world it is still delivering coal.



The station Doren-Sulzberg is situated in a bit wider plateau near the river. Since the unique stationbuildings are not available I make them myself from Polystyrene sheets and Auhagen sheets.



Behind the station the Weissach is crossed by the weissachbridge and after a sharp curve the train arrives at the waterpowerstation of Langenegg. this building is based on the real one, though altered to fit in this place, but in real life opened in 1979 while the line was closed in 1980.



Behind the halt and powerstation Langenegg the train enters a tunnel and emerges on the other side of an Isle in the middle of the room. Here the station of Lingenau-Hittisau is situated.



Behind this station the line has the biggest grade in a sharp curve, leading towards the Egger Viaduct.



which leads the train into the station of Egg



Here the line crosses the track near Langenegg with a small bridge and comes to the station Andelsbuch-Schwarzenberg. Since both stations are far apart and the landscape isn't that interesting there, I coupled both stations together and made one of them. The staton is on the back, the Sporeneggbr

[MickT]

Hello Daan

Welcome to the forum - you should find much to interest you here amongst a friendly group of fellow narrow gauge modellers.

Are you aware of the Dutch Group of the 009 Society? Check out the Dutch language section of their website at : http://www.009dutch.nl/main/frame.htm

Thanks for posting your photos - very attractive and an impressive looking layout. I particularly like your fiddle yard arrangement

Best wishes

Mick

[Daan]

Hi Mick,

I learned to know about the 009 society by joining the Dutch Club's meting last January.
Thanks for the warm welcome!

Best Wishes,

Daan.

[clanky]

Hello Daan your modelling looks great ,and operationally well organised , is there any chance of seeing a plan of your layout ,cheers john ...

[invercloy]

Hi Daan,

I really like your layout, very nice! I particularly like the river valley and the powerstation, great!

Look forward to reading more as and when you're ready to post.

[Daan]

Hello Clarky and Invercloy,
The plan:



Cheers Daan.

[Daan]

I whish you all merry christmas and a happy new year!!

Cheers Daan.

[clanky]

The scene on that photo looks very fimilar  :laugh:. Anyway the same to you and your loved ones , cheers john .

[Daan]

Hi All, As this is the last day of 2010, I take a minute to show off what I've been up to the last year.
First of all, I've translated my webpages about the layout. You can find the website here..

Then some random pictures..

A mixed freight train leaving Kennelbach, the first station on the layout. It crosses the bridge across the Canal which was used by the clothing factories in Kennelbach. This Canal comes out of a higher part of the forest and shows a waterfall near the tracks.


After leaving Kennelbach the mixed freight train pulls its load up the Bregenzerache rivervalley, passing the wooden shed of Fluh halt on its way.


After leaving the Rickenbachtunnel it passes the Rickenbachbridge which crosses a small stream which is surprisingly called "Rickenbach".. 


Then the train passes the turnout to the Wirtatobel mine, where coal is transported to by cableway.


Shortly after passing Wirtatobel mine the line enters the Rotachtunnel.


After passing a not yet sceniced part of the layout, the train passes the Weissachbridge, this time however the train is on it's way back, so moving in opposite direction.


Lingenau-Hittisau is the next station, after the train has passed the Langenegg Waterpowerplant, which also isn't yet sceniced. In this photograph the train is also moving in opposite direction. Here the trains going up hill need a refill on water.


When Lingenau-Hittisau is passed, the train crosses the S

[Graeme Dunbar]

It is very atmospheric Daan. The lighting really shows the scenery off to good effect. I can almost smell the mountain air!

[gtmspyder]

That is a very nicely modelled model railway and looks most realistic, thank you for sharing it with us Daan.

Have a good new year.

Kind regards,

Brian T.

[Daan]

Hello All,
There has been some progress which I'ld like to share..


The powerstation has been painted and I've made trees to make the forest around the powerstation.


The flatcar is based on 2 scrap N scale boogies.


A small area has been made to load and unload things at the powerstation.


Regards, Daan.

[clanky]

daan , what can i say , you are a man of many talent . i've been through your site etc twice and still need to make more visits , do you have a map and compass to keep track (no pun) of everything  ?. cheers john .

[Daan]

Hi Clanky,

First of all, thanks for visiting the website. When I make a change on the website, it will be mentioned on the homepage, as a "community nieuws" message on the bottom of the homepage.
On the right side of the homepage there is a list of all the parts of the layout, I used the plan on "the design" page to devide the layout in these sections. On this plan you can keep track which page on the website is located where on the layout.
That's about anything I keep track of. The Railway model emerges out of my imagination during the many hours of "gaming" I do in between. During the game I think about how the parts should look like.
There is no real plan, except the 1:1 Bregenzerwald Bahn which I keep as an example where possible.

I hope this answers your question..

Best regards, Daan.

[clanky]

indeed it does Daan , cheers john .